How exactly to Help Juniors on the ACT Writing
They write essays on a regular basis.
(*Facepalm*) The problem is, the ACT’s writing section is different enough from the writing normally done in school that I see a lot of students underperform in a fashion that is totally preventable. Typically “good” writers are receiving scores of 6 or 8 (out of 12), when they should be getting decidedly more numbers that are competitive.
Whilst it’s not necessarily an grade that is 11th teacher’s “job” to do ACT/SAT prep or even to “teach into the test”, there’s a problematic reality that when teachers don’t get involved a little, most students won’t understand this knowledge and/or skills anywhere else. And that, my teacher friend, is worrisome.
An english teacher can take to help juniors be more ready so what’s going on, and what are the easiest steps?
Here are the biggest culprits:
1. The timing is much more intense than school. It really is thirty minutes total, including reading the prompt while the entire brainstorm, draft, and proofread process. That task could be daunting if students get writer’s block, have test anxiety, hardly understand the prompt in the heat of this moment, or battle to wrestle their ideas into submission.
In case your students haven’t done timed writing in a bit, are accustomed to 45 minutes, or are not effective in it, chances are they’ll need help to cope. Take a look at my buy essay timed unit that is writing help students get practice completing a cohesive draft in a shorter time.
2. Students don’t know the (new) rubric.When the ACT changed the writing test in 2016, the prompt style AND the rubric both changed. The assessment is not any longer just a typical 5-paragraph (or so) opinion essay. Students are meant to also:
- acknowledge, support, or refute other viewpoints
- provide some mixture of context, implications, significance, etc.
- recognize flaws in logic or assumptions built in a viewpoint, deploying it for their advantage if necessary
- (still write a cohesive essay with a thesis and a number of evidence, as before)
all in 30 minutes or less. English teachers will help by at the least going over the rubric in class, if not assigning an essay that is ACT-style gets assessed within the class.
3. the bar that is linguistic high. In addition to the content characteristics described in #2, students are meant to have decent grammar, varied sentence structures for good flow, transitions within and between paragraphs, and really great fiction or synonyms.
English teachers: if your writing rubrics or style that is gradingn’t typically address these, consider bringing it up in class, assessing of these characteristics regarding the next essay, or reading over a mentor text that DOES meet this bar (see #4).
4. They need to see examples. I highly recommend that students head to this url to not only read a sample 6/6 essay, but compare it to a 4 or 5 essay to notice its differences. Once I teach my ACT writing lessons, i actually do a compare/contrast activity this is exactly why. The stakes are high enough that it’s worth going over a mentor text to see just what the expectations are and debunk the proven fact that it’s impossible to complete.
The conclusion I’ve been tutoring the ACT long enough to acknowledge the distinctions between your old and new versions, as well as without “teaching to the test”, you can find simple steps educators usually takes to simply help juniors stay at or above the national average and achieve their college dreams. Using even some of these tips may help students be a little more ready on test day, and more grateful that they had you as a teacher.